Local Briefs

December 24, 2009|STAFF REPORTS

CRIME & COURTS'Date' becomes robbery in city SOUTH BEND -- Four men who thought they were hooking up with women ended up being robbed of everything, including their clothes, Monday night. Police said the four told them one of them contacted the women through a dating chat line and met them about midnight Monday at a house in the 400 block of East Fairview Avenue. The four victims were talking to three women when three other men, two of them armed with guns, arrived. The victims told police one of the assailants fired a shot and told the victims to take off all their clothes. When the clothes weren't shed, another shot was fired and one of the assailants hit one of the victims in the head with a gun, according to the police report. Eventually, the assailants and the women, who were helping the assailants left with everything, including the victims' clothes. The four victims returned to one of their homes. The police report didn't have any information on whether they made the trip in the nude. Police said the house on East Fairview Avenue was vacant but still had electrical service. CRIME & COURTSMan gets prison for burning cross A Mishawaka man faces more than 3 years in prison for burning a cross in the yard of a biracial couple, according to WSBT-TV. In a plea agreement, a federal judge sentenced Bruce Mikulyuk to 42 months Tuesday. He admitted to the cross burning at his niece's home and then going back to the house with a knife and making threats. Mikulyuk's niece told the court she didn't want her uncle charged in the case. Without the plea agreement, he could have served 20 years in prison. CRIME & COURTSPolice seek 3 in home invasions NILES -- Police are continuing their efforts to identify intruders who entered three unlocked residences in the vicinity of Bond and Fort streets early Monday. The Berrien County Sheriff Department's Niles Township Patrol Division reported Wednesday that possibly three people took part in the home invasions. At one of the residences on Bond Street, a vehicle was stolen, police said, adding it was later recovered in the city of Niles by Niles city police. Anyone with information is asked to contact the patrol division's detective bureau at (269) 684-5274, ext. 6287, or Crime Stoppers at (800) 342-STOP.